


New Home

by I_Wish_To_Remain_Nameless



Series: SCP 6532 - Mob [1]
Category: SCP Foundation, モブサイコ100 | Mob Psycho 100
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Angst, Dehumanization, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:12:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22883812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Wish_To_Remain_Nameless/pseuds/I_Wish_To_Remain_Nameless
Summary: He locks his demons deep inside himself in the highest security cells he can think of and turns his feelings and desires inwards like the arrows on the strange logo on the clipboards his visitors scribble notes on.
Relationships: Kageyama "Mob" Shigeo & Reigen Arataka
Series: SCP 6532 - Mob [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1644904
Comments: 16
Kudos: 144





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**Author's Note:**

  * For [Boobird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boobird/gifts).



> Credit for the SCP AU goes to @boobird from the SATSS Discord. Thank you.

Mob's life, he thinks, could be neatly split into Before and After.

He doesn't remember the event separating the two. Only Ritsu calling out to him in his last moments of Before as one of the highschoolers had flung Mob into a wall and the first moment of After when he woke up to see his brother lying injured on the destroyed sidewalk along with their assailants.

Before he'd had many good people in his life Ritsu, his parents, and, on occasion, Tsubomi. He hadn't appreciated them enough.

Now, in After he realizes he might never see them again. This is probably for the best. He doesn't want to hurt them again.

The memory of Ritsu lying limp on the buckled concrete, a red halo around his head, makes the lights in his room flicker. Mob tries to make his mind as blank as the wall of his dim musty room. Ritsu would be fine. The nice people here told him so. Anyway he doesn't want to cause them anymore trouble then he has already. They've given him more kindness than he deserves. His rooms hadn't been dim and musty when they gave them to him. It was just that lately any room Mob spends much time in tends to inexplicably become dim and musty. He doesn't want to think about why that might be.

The worst part was this: Before he'd thought himself a human. After he knew he couldn't be. Nothing human could have done what he did to the street. At least not without any explosives.

Time is weird now. The minutes crawl by so slowly he sometimes thinks his clock might be broken, but the days rush past in a blur. He spends them replaying his memories of before, engraving them into his heart so he can hold on to them for all the cold, empty days of After still ahead of him. Sometimes people visit to ask him questions or make him do tests. He tries to be cooperative. It's for the best if he just helps the people here do their job. They are just trying to keep everyone safe. It's right there in their name. Secure. Contain. Protect. Keep him safe. Keep him here. Keep everyone else safe from him. It's an important job and he needs to stay in control to let them do it. He's only failed to do this once since the incident, but the ensuing chaos had been bad enough to get him sent to a different branch where he'd be somebody else's problem. He is determined not to fail again.

It's better for everyone this way. How he feels about it doesn't matter. Still, some selfish part, deep inside of him wishes he could be free and see his family again. It's the same part that says that he should stop pretending that this prison or any other could hold him if he chose to escape so Mob pushes it down and ignores it. If he's learned anything from the experience of distorting the world around him in strange and terrifying ways with nothing but the sheer force of his desperate, grasping loneliness it's that for someone like him even the simple act of wanting something is dangerous. He locks his demons deep inside himself in the highest security cells he can think of and turns his feelings and desires inwards, like the arrows of the strange logo on the clipboards his visitors scribble notes on. It isn't easy but he would willingly bear far worse pain to keep others safe from the awful power that burns inside him.

He doesn't know how long things go on like this. Weeks? Months? All Mob knows is that it feels like a very long time. The first hint of a light at the end of the tunnel comes from a young doctor with tired eyes and a bandage on his cheek. He idly runs a hand through his ginger hair and says in unaccented Japanese "So, 6532 do you- Actually screw it- I'm not calling you 6532- Do you have a name?"

It's the first time since he came here that someone has asked Mob his name. "It's Kageyama Shigeo," Mob says, "The other kids called me Mob, sometimes. Because I don't stick out."

"No kidding you don't," the man says under his breath before continuing, "So, Mob I'm your new therapist. Call me Doctor Reigen. I'm going to ask you a few questions. These questions don't have right or wrong answers, so just answer honestly. Do you understand?" 

Mob nods.

"How do you feel about your containment?"

"It's for the best," Mob says.

"Are there any particular areas where you're having trouble adjusting?" Reigen asks tapping his pen against the side of his clipboard.

"Not really," Mob says, because he can't pick. Not without letting his mind wander places it shouldn't, at any rate.

"Is there anything you want to get off your chest? Nightmares, worries, regrets, that sort of thing," Reigen says gesturing vaguely, "I'm here to listen to them. That's sort of my job." 

"Not really," Mob says because talking about his problems would mean thinking about his problems which he knows will only push him closer to losing his already tenuous grip on his powers.

"You know, we'll get a lot more done here if you're honest," Reigen says.

"I'm not lying," Mob says with a tilt of his head.

"Yeah, but that's not the same as being honest. For example if I asked someone what they thought of my theory about how Dr. Kondraki uses insect pheromones as aftershave and that's why 408 is so chummy with him and they changed the topic that wouldn't be very honest of them would it?" Reigen's hands move in an mesmerizing pattern as he talks.

"It wouldn't?" Mob replies tentatively. He doesn't understand half the words Reigen just said.

"Exactly," Reigen nods sagely "Anyway my point is you don't need to dodge my questions. It's okay if you aren't okay, you know."

"It's not," Mob says eyes downcast.

"Eh? You're young, you have a lot to adjust to, and you probably miss your family," Reigen says counting the reasons on his fingers "It's perfectly natural to be stressed under such circumstances. You're only human after all."

This last sentence ignites a spark of hope in Mob. "Am I really?" he asks with something approaching eagerness.

"Really what?" Now it's Reigen's turn to be puzzled.

"Human," Mob explains, "I thought I couldn't be. Not with these powers."

A pained expression crosses Reigen's face for a moment and Mob wonders if he said something wrong. Maybe Reigen had just forgotten who he was talking to. What Mob could do. However, just as Mob's heart is starting to sink again Reigen bends down so he can look Mob in the eye and tells him "Listen carefully, Mob. You are a human. So maybe you can do a few things that most people can't but I don't think that's important. What is important is how you treat others," Reigen pats Mob on the shoulder before finishing "Kindness is what makes us human. Just remember that and you'll be fine."

Reigen's words fill Mob with the most hope he's felt since After began. He repeats them in his head, over and over, so he doesn't forget them. His room doesn't seem as dark anymore and the musty smell fades to be replaced by the clean scent of lemons. Even after Reigen leaves and Mob is alone again the hope remains. The hope that perhaps he isn't as removed from humanity as he feared.

**Author's Note:**

> As always feel free to yell at me in the comments.  
> Edit 5/17/2020: improved the formatting.


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